Thursday, August 9, 2018

Durham Police Fatally Shoot Man At New Hope Commons Shopping Center

Durham police officers shot and killed a man Wednesday after he pointed a gun at them, according to a statement from the Durham Police Department.

As of early Thursday morning, neither the man nor the officers involved had been identified.

According to the police department, officers received information Wednesday evening from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office that" an armed suicidal man was driving a red pick-up truck in the vicinity of the New Hope Commons shopping center." Using that description, Durham officers tried to locate the man in the area around the shopping center for about ninety minutes. They found him in the parking lot just after eight p.m and tried to speak with him, according to the statement.

"Officers indicated that the man displayed a handgun and pointed it at them, which caused the officers to fire their weapons," the statement says.

CPR was administered and the man was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“We would like to express our concern and condolences to everyone involved. Any loss of life is always a tragic event,” Police Chief C.J. Davis said in the statement.

As is standard procedure, the State Bureau of Investigation is investigating.

Asked by Mayor Steve Schewel for an update at Thursday's Durham City Council work session, City Manager Tom Bonfield said he had no additional information to announce.

"Before anything is communicated we want to make sure we get it right," he said, adding that there has been "continuous activity" between the police department and the SBI since Wednesday night.

"It's one of those situations none of us ever want to happen," he said.

Schewel called the shooting "a very tragic situation and one we hope will never be repeated."

This is the third fatal shooting involved Durham officers since November 2016, when police Frank Clark killed in McDougald Terrace. In February 2017, police fatally shot Kenneth Bailey in the Club Boulevard neighborhood. In both cases, the police department said the men pointed weapons at officers, who were cleared by investigations by the District Attorney's Office and the police department.